The Melissa and Doug Learn to Play Piano is made of durable quality wood, is easy to use, and gets the children engaged with lasting fun. There is no home assembly required at all. We just took it out from the plastic wrapper and cardboard packaging. Easy peasy!
It is sturdy and solidly built, weighing in at approx 4kg (unscientifically measured with bathroom scales). The piano is top-heavy so we placed it next to the wall (without a window as children might use it as a stepping stool) to prevent it from tipping it over. The surface of the piano is very smooth without any sharp edges. The piano is very colourful and looks like an attractive piece of furniture in the home.
Quiet
This is the first time we introduced a piano to our children (four year old son and three year old daughter). Inevitably, when they first played with it, they just wanted to randomly bang the keys. It is loud but not too loud.
The quality of the sound is acceptable, sounding more like a xylophone than a piano to our untrained ears. However, there is a mechanical clicking sound each time you strike the keys. The white keys each measure 2 cm by 9.5 cm and are well spaced for little fingers and grown-up fingers alike.
Altogether
On the piano is a useful key chart positioned above the keys. This is made from thin cardboard paper and my daughter kept wanting to remove it. It would have been nice if the key chart was stuck on to prevent curious fingers from ripping it off.
After the children had a moment to play with it, my husband tried to teach each child how to play it. For our son, he was able to read the songbook and follow the colour coded notes. The piano has a range of two octaves and he did get a little confused as to which 'C' he should use. But after a while, he was able to understand that he should focus on just a few keys to play from the songbook. We had one negative aspect about the book though which is that it's made from thin paper, making it easy to accidentally tear. It would be great if it was made from thicker cardboard material. We rested the songbook on the top of the piano and it is a comfortable height for my children to read.
As for our daughter, she was able to follow her dad's instruction very well and managed to play a nice song with just one try! However, her attention span was shorter and she soon began to play random notes while howling out the lyrics to “Happy Birthdayâ€. But she is gaining an appreciation of music, so that's a great start!
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Overall, I would rate the piano 4 out of 5 stars. It is a good beginner’s instrument to introduce young children to the piano and to playing music. It looks like a toy and therefore will appeal to children, yet it is solidly built. It will help creative development and can provide fun for all the family.
